At the end of last season we arranged a fan voting for the awards the NBA hand out at the end of each season on our forums. When the actual awards were made official, it was very interesting to see how close the fan votes were to the official ones. The top-5 for MVP were close to identical. I thought this was a very interesting project, so I arranged it again this season. Since I wanted the results to be as objective as possible, I invited representatives from each team forum (30 in total) plus 20 hand picked posters for a panel of 50 top notch posters.

The point system installed was the same the league uses for most awards. The ballots for the most prestigeous award, most valuable player ran 5 deep. Players were awarded 10 points for each first place vote, 7 points for each second place vote, 5 points for third, 3 for fourth, and 1 point for each fifth place vote. For the six other awards, the ballots asked for the voters top 3 choices. Players, coaches, or GM's received 5 points for each first place vote, 3 for second, and 1 point for each third place vote. 500 points was the maximum for MVP and 250 for all the other awards. Without further introduction, here are the people?s choices for NBA awards for the 2007-08 season:

Most valuable player ? points (first place votes)
1. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers ? 412 (29)
2. Chris Paul, New Orleans Hornets ? 383 (15)
3. Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics ? 212 (3)
4. LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers ? 188 (2)
5. Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic ? 56 (1)

Others receiving votes: Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs ? 17; Tracy McGrady, Houston Rockets ? 15; Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns ? 5; Allen Iverson, Denver Nuggets ? 5; Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks ? 2; Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix Suns ? 2; Deron Williams, Utah Jazz ? 2; Chauncey Billups, Detroit Pistons ? 1.

Comments: In the end this came down to Kobe Bryant vs Chris Paul. Both had amazing seasons, and it?s too bad they can?t both win the award because they both deserve it. Paul, who led the league in both assists and steals, led his Hornets to the second best record in the western conference. Kobe, the second leading scorer in the league, led his Lakers to the top spot out West despite numerous injuries to key players. Who would have thought that these two teams would stand as the top two teams in the Western Conference at the start of the season? No one, and that?s why this is a two horse race between Bryant and Paul.

Paul was the only player on all 50 ballots while Bryant made 49 of them while edging out Paul on the first place votes and thus winning the vote overall with 412 points out of 500 possible.

Kevin Garnett, who was traded to the Celtics prior to this season, helped install a defensive mentality in Boston which ultimately led to the biggest turnaround in league history. Garnett?s raw numbers are down compared to previous seasons, but that?s because he didn?t need to do everything like he used to do in Minnesota. Having the luxury to play less minutes because of how great the Celtics were this season also led to his raw numbers taking a slight dive.

LeBron was the leagues' best player statistically this season. He posted a monster stat line of 30 points (led NBA), 7.9 rebounds, and 7.2 assists with 1.8 steals and 1.1 blocks to go with it. Despite LeBron?s individual brilliance this season, the Cavs as a team failed to win enough for him to climb to the top as far as the MVP is concerned.

Dwight Howard rounded out the top 5 after yet another impressive season leading his Magic to 52 wins. Howard has improved his game every year of his career, and it?s scary to think about how good he?s become given his age.

Click 'Read' to view the forum's picks for the other major awards from Defensive Player of the Year to the coveted Executive of the Year.